The present invention relates to powder mixture for healthy foods and method for producing cakes therefrom, and more particularly relates to powder mixture containing okara as its major ingredient and used for production of various cakes as healthy foods.
Okara is a by-product obtained in production of tofu, i.e. bean curd, which is one of the most popular, traditional Japanese foods. More specifically, in production of tofu, beans swollen with water are ground into colloidal paste which is then heated and filtered. An extract from this filtering process is shaped into tofu after addition of proper coagulating agent such as calcium sulfate. Okara is obtained as a refuse after the filtering process.
Tofu is widely accepted as a very nutritious food with high degree of digestibility (about 98%). It generally contains about 6% by weight of vegetable protein, about 4% by weight of fats and only 0.8 to 1.7% by weight of sugar. Its appreciable content of vegetable protein associated with low content of sugar has recently developed its consumption in particular in the field of healthy foods. Though a little degraded, okara, i.e. bean curd refuse, is also believed to be appreciably nutritious and digestible. Despite such merits, okara has not been regarded in the field of industrial application all that long. In only minor part of production, okara has been used for home cooking and most part of animal foods or, in the worst case, discarded as a waste.